Empowerments within empowerments

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Paul
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Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Paul »

I read this post while browsing the web and I'd be interested to know if it's true that there are permissions for various deities' mantras etc. containted within an empowerment for another deity.

I know for instance that Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche consideres that his empowerments are also the wangs for vaious deity and mantra practices.
Look at the unfathomable spinelessness of man: all the means he's been given to stay alert he uses, in the end, to ornament his sleep. – Rene Daumal
the modern mind has become so limited and single-visioned that it has lost touch with normal perception - John Michell
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heart
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Hayagriva wrote:I read this post while browsing the web and I'd be interested to know if it's true that there are permissions for various deities' mantras etc. containted within an empowerment for another deity.

I know for instance that Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche consideres that his empowerments are also the wangs for vaious deity and mantra practices.
KT is an odd person. I doubt that he is correct. No wang translation I ever seen included any empowerment's that wasn't a part of the mandala. Also the the "three words that strike the vital point" is not an empowerment at all, it is a teaching . ChNN gives "rigpe tsal wangs" , "lungs" for many mantras and then he also give full blown empowerments more rarely. I doubt he feel like they are all the same.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

heart wrote:
Hayagriva wrote:I read this post while browsing the web and I'd be interested to know if it's true that there are permissions for various deities' mantras etc. containted within an empowerment for another deity.

I know for instance that Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche consideres that his empowerments are also the wangs for vaious deity and mantra practices.
KT is an odd person. I doubt that he is correct. No wang translation I ever seen included any empowerment's that wasn't a part of the mandala. Also the the "three words that strike the vital point" is not an empowerment at all, it is a teaching . ChNN gives "rigpe tsal wangs" , "lungs" for many mantras and then he also give full blown empowerments more rarely. I doubt he feel like they are all the same.

/magnus
He only gives the first part of the Rigpai tsal wang publicly.
Yeah, I'm not sure where KT got the idea that the "three words" were an empowerment. Its an overall weird post.
A lot of teachers will give you lung or pewang if you have previously received a major empowerment or Vajrasattva empowerment but I think KT is mistaken for the most part.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Paul
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Paul »

Nangwa wrote:I think KT is mistaken for the most part.
I thought this would be the case, but the notion of one empowerment/permission being within the other was interesting.

The fact that some of the mantras being wrong and that I'd never heard of such a thing before made me doubt it.
Look at the unfathomable spinelessness of man: all the means he's been given to stay alert he uses, in the end, to ornament his sleep. – Rene Daumal
the modern mind has become so limited and single-visioned that it has lost touch with normal perception - John Michell
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

Hayagriva wrote:
Nangwa wrote:I think KT is mistaken for the most part.
I thought this would be the case, but the notion of one empowerment/permission being within the other was interesting.

The fact that some of the mantras being wrong and that I'd never heard of such a thing before made me doubt it.
I'm sure if we looked we could find examples of this being true, but I think KT goes to far when he implies that it is a general rule.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Luke
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Luke »

I'll add the small bit of information that I know.

My lama wanted a visiting lama to give us the empowerment for the 108 deities which live within our bodies. However, the visiting lama did not have enough time, so he gave us a Vajrasattva empowerment instead and said that Vajrasattva was the "summation" of these 108 deities.

OM BENZA SATO HUNG!
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

Luke wrote:I'll add the small bit of information that I know.

My lama wanted a visiting lama to give us the empowerment for the 108 deities which live within our bodies. However, the visiting lama did not have enough time, so he gave us a Vajrasattva empowerment instead and said that Vajrasattva was the "summation" of these 108 deities.

OM BENZA SATO HUNG!
Yes, this is why many lama's will give a lung or pewang to students who have received a Vajrasattva empowerment rather than requiring them to receive the full empowerment before practicing specific yidams.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote:
Luke wrote:I'll add the small bit of information that I know.

My lama wanted a visiting lama to give us the empowerment for the 108 deities which live within our bodies. However, the visiting lama did not have enough time, so he gave us a Vajrasattva empowerment instead and said that Vajrasattva was the "summation" of these 108 deities.

OM BENZA SATO HUNG!
Yes, this is why many lama's will give a lung or pewang to students who have received a Vajrasattva empowerment rather than requiring them to receive the full empowerment before practicing specific yidams.
I never heard that in my 25 years as a practitioner. Which Lamas and traditions are you referring to?

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

heart wrote:
Nangwa wrote:
Luke wrote:I'll add the small bit of information that I know.

My lama wanted a visiting lama to give us the empowerment for the 108 deities which live within our bodies. However, the visiting lama did not have enough time, so he gave us a Vajrasattva empowerment instead and said that Vajrasattva was the "summation" of these 108 deities.

OM BENZA SATO HUNG!
Yes, this is why many lama's will give a lung or pewang to students who have received a Vajrasattva empowerment rather than requiring them to receive the full empowerment before practicing specific yidams.
I never heard that in my 25 years as a practitioner. Which Lamas and traditions are you referring to?

/magnus
In most Nyingma circles the base requirement for practicing ngondro etc. is a Vajrasattva empowerment. Usually if a practitioner has received the Vajrasattva empowerment and have access to their teacher they can get permission to do other practices through a pewang or lung rather than waiting for the entire empowerment.
I have experienced this many times with different Nyingma and Kagyu lamas. I'm not going to list specific teachers as I am not a fan of name-dropping. Sorry.
You very well may have never heard of or experienced this kind of transmission. Thats fine and I dont think you are incorrect.
You have your experience and I have mine, some people may share in what I have learned and others may have the same experience as you. In the diversity of teachings there is no one answer.
Last edited by Josef on Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

Hayagriva wrote:
Nangwa wrote:I think KT is mistaken for the most part.
I thought this would be the case, but the notion of one empowerment/permission being within the other was interesting.

The fact that some of the mantras being wrong and that I'd never heard of such a thing before made me doubt it.
One such case where multiple transmissions are given in a single empowerment would be certain Kagye Deshek Dupa empowerments.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote:
In most Nyingma circles the base requirement for practicing ngondro etc. is a Vajrasattva empowerment. Usually if a practitioner has received the Vajrasattva empowerment and have access to their teacher they can get permission to do other practices through a pewang or lung rather than waiting for the entire empowerment.
I have experienced this many times with different Nyingma and Kagyu lamas. I'm not going to list specific teachers as I am not a fan of name-dropping. Sorry.
You very well may have never heard of or experienced this kind of transmission. Thats fine and I dont think you are incorrect.
You have your experience and I have mine, some people may share in what I have learned and others may have the same experience as you. In the diversity of teachings there is no one answer.
I practiced in both Kagyu and Nyingma and no Lama or Rinpoche ever asked if anyone have a Vajrasattva empowerment in order to do Ngondro. Maybe you can point me to some teaching o the internet?

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

heart wrote:
Nangwa wrote:
In most Nyingma circles the base requirement for practicing ngondro etc. is a Vajrasattva empowerment. Usually if a practitioner has received the Vajrasattva empowerment and have access to their teacher they can get permission to do other practices through a pewang or lung rather than waiting for the entire empowerment.
I have experienced this many times with different Nyingma and Kagyu lamas. I'm not going to list specific teachers as I am not a fan of name-dropping. Sorry.
You very well may have never heard of or experienced this kind of transmission. Thats fine and I dont think you are incorrect.
You have your experience and I have mine, some people may share in what I have learned and others may have the same experience as you. In the diversity of teachings there is no one answer.
I practiced in both Kagyu and Nyingma and no Lama or Rinpoche ever asked if anyone have a Vajrasattva empowerment in order to do Ngondro. Maybe you can point me to some teaching o the internet?

/magnus
Not sure if I can find anything specific on the web but you can easily find a lot of instances where the two are "packaged together" ie, you go to a retreat and get a Vajrasattva empowerment and ngondro teachings at that retreat. I will have to admit that I shouldnt have said "requirement" in regards to the Vajrasattva empowerment. I should have said something more along the lines of a Vajrasattva empowerment being "encouraged".
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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heart
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote:
heart wrote:
Nangwa wrote:
In most Nyingma circles the base requirement for practicing ngondro etc. is a Vajrasattva empowerment. Usually if a practitioner has received the Vajrasattva empowerment and have access to their teacher they can get permission to do other practices through a pewang or lung rather than waiting for the entire empowerment.
I have experienced this many times with different Nyingma and Kagyu lamas. I'm not going to list specific teachers as I am not a fan of name-dropping. Sorry.
You very well may have never heard of or experienced this kind of transmission. Thats fine and I dont think you are incorrect.
You have your experience and I have mine, some people may share in what I have learned and others may have the same experience as you. In the diversity of teachings there is no one answer.
I practiced in both Kagyu and Nyingma and no Lama or Rinpoche ever asked if anyone have a Vajrasattva empowerment in order to do Ngondro. Maybe you can point me to some teaching o the internet?

/magnus
Not sure if I can find anything specific on the web but you can easily find a lot of instances where the two are "packaged together" ie, you go to a retreat and get a Vajrasattva empowerment and ngondro teachings at that retreat. I will have to admit that I shouldnt have said "requirement" in regards to the Vajrasattva empowerment. I should have said something more along the lines of a Vajrasattva empowerment being "encouraged".
That is an other thing altogether, isn't it?

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote:
Hayagriva wrote:
Nangwa wrote:I think KT is mistaken for the most part.
I thought this would be the case, but the notion of one empowerment/permission being within the other was interesting.

The fact that some of the mantras being wrong and that I'd never heard of such a thing before made me doubt it.
One such case where multiple transmissions are given in a single empowerment would be certain Kagye Deshek Dupa empowerments.
The Kagye is one mandala. It isn't exactly the same as getting a Vajrasattva empowerment that include a Vajrapani empowerment.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

heart wrote:
I thought this would be the case, but the notion of one empowerment/permission being within the other was interesting.

The fact that some of the mantras being wrong and that I'd never heard of such a thing before made me doubt it.
One such case where multiple transmissions are given in a single empowerment would be certain Kagye Deshek Dupa empowerments.[/quote]

The Kagye is one mandala. It isn't exactly the same as getting a Vajrasattva empowerment that include a Vajrapani empowerment.

/magnus[/quote]
Maybe that is how the Kagye Deshek Dupa that you are familiar with and the one that I received differ.
Not sure why you are comparing it to Vajrasattva and Vajrapani.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

heart wrote:

I practiced in both Kagyu and Nyingma and no Lama or Rinpoche ever asked if anyone have a Vajrasattva empowerment in order to do Ngondro. Maybe you can point me to some teaching o the internet?

/magnus
Not sure if I can find anything specific on the web but you can easily find a lot of instances where the two are "packaged together" ie, you go to a retreat and get a Vajrasattva empowerment and ngondro teachings at that retreat. I will have to admit that I shouldnt have said "requirement" in regards to the Vajrasattva empowerment. I should have said something more along the lines of a Vajrasattva empowerment being "encouraged".[/quote]

That is an other thing altogether, isn't it?

/magnus[/quote]
Sorry. not sure what you mean Magnus.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote: Maybe that is how the Kagye Deshek Dupa that you are familiar with and the one that I received differ.
Not sure why you are comparing it to Vajrasattva and Vajrapani.
Kagye is when you practice the 8 herukas in one mandala with Chemchok heruka as the central deity.
http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Kagy%C3%A9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I said that Kagye (with it's 9 deities in one mandala) is not the same as what the original posters link where the person KT says that every major empowerment (for example Vajrasattva) contain a Vajrapani empowerment.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote:
heart wrote:
That is an other thing altogether, isn't it?

/magnus
Sorry. not sure what you mean Magnus.
Nangwa, there is a big difference between saying it is a "requirement" and being "encouraged". In fact it changes the meaning completely. Even so, I never heard a Lama or Rinpoche encourage that either. I am sure you can find me some source for that?

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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Josef
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by Josef »

heart wrote:
Nangwa wrote:
heart wrote:
That is an other thing altogether, isn't it?

/magnus
Sorry. not sure what you mean Magnus.
Nangwa, there is a big difference between saying it is a "requirement" and being "encouraged". In fact it changes the meaning completely. Even so, I never heard a Lama or Rinpoche encourage that either. I am sure you can find me some source for that?

/magnus
Sorry you might have missed it Magnus. I'm not really interested in continuing the discussion to be honest.
I already acknowledged that I mis-represented when I said "requirement". I remember getting involved with you in circular discussions on e-sangha and have no desire to repeat that here. I dont mean to be rude.
You can think whatever you want and thats just fine. We have different experiences, thats all.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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Re: Empowerments within empowerments

Post by heart »

Nangwa wrote: Sorry you might have missed it Magnus. I'm not really interested in continuing the discussion to be honest.
I already acknowledged that I mis-represented when I said "requirement". I remember getting involved with you in circular discussions on e-sangha and have no desire to repeat that here. I dont mean to be rude.
You can think whatever you want and thats just fine. We have different experiences, thats all.
I have no idea who you are, so I can't recall having any discussions with you on e-sangha or anywhere else. I have no problems with you, I just think you should be able to back up your statements with some facts, that's all.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
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